Ethan let out a slow breath. The battle was over, and almost immediately the familiar cascade of notifications began to appear. That alone was enough to confirm it. After a quick scan of the battlefield to make sure everyone was alright, Ethan finally allowed his attention to turn inward.

  The system messages waited for him.

  Skill leveled [Steadfast Lv.6]

  Skill leveled [Steadfast Lv.7]

  Skill leveled [Keen Sense Lv.2]

  Skill leveled [Advanced Sword Mastery Lv.2]

  You have defeated [Rupture Colossus Lv.38]

  Congratulations! You are now [Warrior Lv.11]

  Str +2, End +1, Ag +1, Per +1, Will +1

  …

  Congratulations! You are now [Warrior Lv.16]

  Str +2, End +1, Ag +1, Per +1, Will +1

  Ethan read through the notifications once… then blinked and quickly read them again.

  He had decided to keep putting his free point into strength for now. He had considered starting to allocate them into agility, but decided against it. He wanted to get back to being able to use his primary weapon as soon as possible. So, for now, it was the best option. So, he quickly assigned them, before looking at everything else.

  The jump in levels had made sense. He’d killed something vastly higher level than himself, and from what he could tell, the Colossus had been a variant on top of that. A Rupture Colossus, apparently. He had known there was a colossus here, obviously. But no one had ever actually killed it. Not because it was the most powerful creature on the level, but because no one knew how to kill it. If a group had tried to take it on and didn’t attack its core, it would continue to regenerate until its mana had run out. Which would be a very long time.

  He had assumed it was a Sand Colossus because that was what were common on the seventh level. Obviously at a much higher level however.

  He didn’t remember hearing anything about a Rupture Colossus though, but he doubted that changed the value of its heart all that much. In fact, it was probably better, just for the fact it was a variant.

  As for the other notifications, the increases in [Steadfast] were expected. He’d leaned on the skill heavily throughout the fight.

  What made him pause was the notification for [Advanced Sword Mastery].

  That one didn’t make sense. They’d traveled for weeks. He’d fought countless undead. He’d sparred with Nivia, showing his superior sword skills. And through all of it, the skill hadn’t budged an inch. Yet here, during a fight where he’d mostly been climbing, jumping, and hanging on—it had leveled.

  Objectively, he hadn’t even been particularly good with the blade. He had just stabbed it a few times.

  Ethan snorted quietly.

  If the system wanted to hand out levels at weird times, he wouldn’t argue.

  He dismissed the notifications just as Nivia finished healing Alex. She glanced over, caught Ethan’s eye, and walked toward him.

  “Do you need any healing?”

  “It wouldn’t hurt,” Ethan replied, lifting his arms slightly to show the burns and crystalline sand embedded in his skin.

  Nivia winced.

  She stepped closer and raised her hands, resting them just above his forearm one at a time. A soft glow enveloped her palms as mana flowed from her into him. Ethan felt the sensation immediately. It always left him feeling weird when someone else used their mana on him, but as the embedded shards were slowly pushed free and the worst of the burns began to knit together, he decided he could deal with it.

  She pulled back after a moment, breathing a little harder, sweat beading at her brow. “I’ll need to heal more later. I’m running low on mana.”

  “That’s fine,” Ethan said. The worst of the pain was already gone. His skin still burned, tight and blistered, but it was manageable. A hell of a lot better than it had been.

  He lowered his arms and looked toward the massive corpse sprawled across the sand.

  “Let’s harvest this thing before anything else shows up.”

  Nivia agreed, and they moved together toward the Colossus. Its fissures had gone dark, molten light fully extinguished. The enormous body lay on its belly, legs trapped beneath its own weight. Its head had slumped to the side, trunk and tusks sprawled across the crystallized sand.

  Ethan couldn’t help the twinge of regret as he looked at it.

  The hide alone would make exceptional armor. The tusks would sell for a fortune. If he’d had a storage item, he could have stripped the thing down properly. Instead, all he had was his backpack—assuming it was still where he’d dropped it when the fight began.

  Alex broke the silence. “So… how do we go about this?”

  Ethan shrugged. “As long as you find my sister, we’re even. Besides, it’s not like I can carry much back with me.”

  “Really?” Alex asked, raising an eyebrow. “You struck the killing blow. It’s only fair you take something.”

  Ethan looked the corpse over again. There wasn’t much he could reasonably carry for weeks on the road. But then his eyes caught on something near the shattered plates behind the trunk.

  The core.

  It had split cleanly in two from his final strike, fractured but not inert. Even with his still-developing senses, Ethan could feel the mana inside it—dense, potent, and slowly leaking away.

  The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

  He stepped forward and reached down, lifting the broken core free.

  “Don’t mind if I do, then.”

  Ethan stepped back, getting ready to extract the heart for them.

  Alex chuckled and turned his attention toward Thane, who still looked pale but was standing on his own. “You good to go?”

  “Give me a moment,” Thane replied.

  Ethan frowned slightly as Thane walked past them toward the Colossus. Most of its body had begun to crumble, but it still had strong plates of armor and its tusk. The man placed a hand against the massive body and stood there, eyes closed, for several seconds.

  Then the Colossus vanished.

  The space it had occupied was suddenly empty, leaving behind nothing but scorched sand.

  Ethan stared. For a moment he couldn’t believe it. He had been swindled.

  His mouth opened slightly as he looked from the empty ground… to Thane… then slowly back to Alex.

  “What the fuck was that?”

  “Oh—didn’t I tell you?” Alex said casually. “Thane has the inventory skill.”

  Ethan stared at him.

  Then he looked back at the empty stretch of scorched sand where the Colossus had been moments earlier.

  “…You’re kidding,” Ethan said.

  Alex grinned. “Nope.”

  Ethan turned slowly, eyes locking onto Thane. “I knew I liked you. Why didn’t you tell me? How much can you store? Anything living?”

  Thane shifted, suddenly uncomfortable under the attention. “It’s not that simple,” he said. “It’s a high-tier inventory. But it still has limits. I haven’t leveled it enough to know about keeping anything living in it. The energy cost scales with mass. That thing nearly emptied me just storing it. And even then I couldn’t take everything.”

  Ethan exhaled sharply, running a hand through his hair. “You could’ve mentioned that earlier.”

  Alex shrugged. “Where’s the fun in that?”

  Ethan shot him a look sharp enough to cut the glass they stood on. Alex held it for a moment, then chuckled and raised both hands. “Alright, alright. I’m messing with you. Mostly.”

  He nodded toward Thane. “Once we’re back in Highrocks, you can have some of armor plates. A tusk too, if you want. We’ll get it processed properly. No funny business. Promise.”

  Ethan studied him for a second longer, then nodded once. “That should work.”

  Nivia cut in. “Alright, let’s stop mucking around and get out of here. I want to get home.”

  Alex nodded. With the Colossus dealt with, there was no reason to linger. And from the shift in his expression, he seemed eager to get out of here and likely back to the guild leader.

  They set off not long after they found where they dumped their gear, leaving the crystallized battlefield behind as the dunes slowly reclaimed the scars of their fight.

  As they walked, Alex fell into step beside Ethan. “So,” he started, “what happens now?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “You know… with the heart? How does it work? Do we just feed it to her or what?”

  Ethan stopped walking. “Are you perhaps an idiot?”

  “What does that mean?”

  “No, you don’t feed it to her. If she tried to consume it like that, it would kill her. Or worse, overload her and tear her apart from the inside.”

  Alex frowned. “Then what’s the process?”

  “It needs to be boiled down,” Ethan continued. “Liquified. Broken apart slowly so the energy stabilizes. The regeneration property of the Colossus has to be separated from the raw mana first. Otherwise, it’ll just fight her.”

  Alex glanced at him. “What, so it’s dangerous to her?”

  “Her body is already in a constant state of conflict. The Colossus’s regeneration is aggressive. That pressure, combined with the mana density, might give her a fighting chance. But if it’s too powerful, it could fight her as well.”

  “Might,” Alex repeated.

  Ethan nodded. “That’s the best anyone’s ever gotten. You should know that. But like I told you before, I don’t actually know how to heal her, only what she needs. Your healer will have to do the rest.”

  “Yeah, alright. Still, thanks.”

  They walked in silence for a while after that, dunes rolling endlessly around them. The desert felt quieter now, almost subdued, as if the death of the Colossus had taken something fundamental with it. No other monsters had come into view, and it looked like they might get a clear run out of here.

  When they finally made camp, the sun was already dipping low, painting the sky in deep oranges and reds. Thane was clearly exhausted, moving stiffly as he helped set up the fire. Nivia worked quietly beside him.

  Ethan decided he would leave it to them to set up camp and took a seat, pulling the core from his bag.

  The fractured halves still glowed faintly, but the light was dimmer now. Sluggish. He could feel the energy bleeding away, dissipating into the air in a slow, irreversible trickle.

  He frowned. This wasn’t something he could sit on for long. He needed to use it before it turned into a waste.

  He’d asked Thane earlier if storing it in his inventory would preserve it. Thane had shaken his head.

  “Inventory doesn’t freeze time,” he’d said. “No stasis. No preservation. It’s just a pocket space, even if mine is larger than normal.” He then proceeded to wink.

  Ethan decided to ignore him after that.

  Ethan turned the core slightly, watching the light pulse weakly within. He needed to do something with it soon. Very soon. Whether that meant refining it himself or finding someone who could.

  He started to settle into meditation, preparing to examine it more closely.

  That was when Alex approached.

  “Ethan,” he said quietly.

  “What.”

  “I need to tell you something.”

  Ethan opened his eyes and stored the core. Looks like he couldn’t get a moment’s peace. And going off Alex’s demeanor, it was important.

  Alex hesitated, which was unusual. He rubbed the back of his neck, gaze flicking briefly toward the others by the fire before returning to Ethan.

  “I’ve had some news,” he said.

  Ethan’s heart skipped.

  “…About what.”

  Alex didn’t answer immediately. That pause told Ethan everything. He stood up.

  “What did you hear?” Ethan said, voice low, his mind swirling with the worst thoughts he could conjure.

  Alex met his gaze. “About your sister.”

  “What about her?”

  “We got word from one of the eastern routes. Mountford settlement. Her name came up, around two weeks ago.”

  Relief flooded through him. His sister had made it to a settlement. That meant she had passed the worst of the initial danger. Then he caught on to what Alex said at the end.

  “What do you mean, two weeks ago?”

  Alex sighed. “Look, I’m sorry. Word reached me as soon as I sent out the request. But I needed you to uphold your end of the deal.”

  Ethan shoved Alex before he consciously decided to move.

  “What the fuck!”

  Alex staggered back a step, surprise flashing across his face as he found his footing.

  Nivia was on her feet instantly, eyes darting between them. Thane stood beside her.

  “What the hell is going on?” Nivia demanded.

  Ethan was shaking.

  “You knew,” he said, advancing on Alex. “How could you keep that from me? I didn’t know if my sister was dead or alive.”

  Alex wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, breathing out slowly. “Ethan—”

  “Why wouldn’t you tell me? We were supposed to be—” Ethan cut off, his words coming to a halt. He wanted to say they were supposed to be friends—brothers. He paused and studied Alex.

  Alex straightened. “You lead us to the Colossus. We help you afterward. That was the agreement.”

  Ethan wanted to laugh. He had forgotten this was a transaction. Nothing more. “Mountford isn’t far. I could’ve gone there. I could’ve looked.”

  “And we wouldn’t have had the Colossus heart,” Alex shot back. “Which means the guild master stays the way she is. Which means my guild would likely fall apart.”

  Silence stretched between them.

  Ethan turned away, pacing hard through the sand. He ignored the others as they moved toward Alex. Logically, he knew Alex had a fair point. Hell, their deal was upheld, even. But still. Logic could fuck off. His sister had been here for two weeks without him.

  Alex spoke again, quieter. “I’m sorry. I really am. But I needed you focused. And you delivered.”

  Ethan stopped.

  “Have you heard anything else?”

  Alex hesitated. “That’s all we know. She’s in Valkyrie territory. We had our spy watching her but haven’t heard anything since the initial report.”

  Ethan closed his eyes.

  Then he nodded.

  “Alright,” he said.

  Nivia blinked. “Ethan—”

  “I’m going after her.”

  Alex opened his mouth. Ethan held up a hand.

  “You got what you wanted,” he said. “The Colossus. The heart. Your deal is fulfilled. Your master will be saved.”

  Alex studied him for a long moment, then nodded once. “Fair enough.”

  Ethan slung his pack over his shoulder. “Look, for what it’s worth, thanks for finding her. I’ll be on my way now.”

  “That’s fine,” Alex said quietly. “Just… good luck.”

  Ethan didn’t answer.

  He turned and walked away from the firelight, boots crunching softly against the sand as the desert swallowed his silhouette.

  Despite his shit mood, Alex had delivered, and now he had a chance to see his sister again. He just hoped he wasn’t too late and that she was still there.